We (the other users), who're actually aliens, noticed that at this pace the human race will not achieve interstellar travel within one hundred years, therefore humans are no longer considered "worth researching". They have too many local issues and forget too often about all the important things to achieve more in science and a better living condition

Yep agree the pace is slow but its nice to know that my firewalls are proof against alien hackers. As yesterday me and a friend the primary part of the Potent Voyager team were working on version 23 of our proto patent since our pro bono talk with a patent lawyer last year and with his advice on what we would need to do to get it ready for the next stage, touch wood cross fingers etc we hope to achieve patent pending status by the end of this year and then be able to raise capital for a proper prototype hopefully making access to LEO cheaper if it all works out. We need that before working out how to to do the interstellar stuff our one small step is the first 100Km to LEO the giant leaps come later as we grow up as a species.

_________________Someone has to tilt at windmills.So that we know what to do when the real giants come!!!!

Its weird isnt it, I wonder if it is the subject area we cover. I belong to marine aquarium forums where we talk for hours about completely nothing and all help each other every second, here it seems everyone wants to put others down or tell them they know better. There isnt much area for general helping

I think aerospace in general is a technical field too far away for most day to day people. Majority of people once graduated fail big time in basic math and forget most stuff. And while many programmers are interested in space, space development itself requires large real life teams to make real things happen, other than just some people working together with a computer. But I would have thought that by now way large online portals, full of supporters all cheering for spacex and other companies would exist. But I fear it's like the space shuttle, first launches = big news, but after a few, news coverage faded quickly.

Its weird isnt it, I wonder if it is the subject area we cover. I belong to marine aquarium forums where we talk for hours about completely nothing and all help each other every second, here it seems everyone wants to put others down or tell them they know better. There isnt much area for general helping

Speaking for myself I have found some of the posts and links helpful over the years. I have also tried to reciprocate where I could. But I am also willing to argue my point of view vigorously tho I hope the number of smiley's I use sweetens the occasional bitter pill . But as Monroe's recent leaving shows sometimes the level of snarkyness gets to a level people give up and leave which is a shame as it seemed he had finally got a team that could accommodate his strong personality(And you need one if you are running teams of what are basically volunteers even if you want to turn them into professionals later) And it was putting up discussion points that could have been useful for many teams where we could have all shared and benefited from none commercially sensitive aspects of cooperation.

After all the nominative determination of the forums name is space fellowship we may occasionally disagree on the best way to do it but we should all agree that there is a need to get out of Earth's nest and learn to fly after all the chicks that stay in the nest will either die from predators(rocks from above), disease and starvation(from over crowding) or pollution(As at the bottom of a gravity well its hard not to $#!t in the nest )

Sigurd wrote:

I think aerospace in general is a technical field too far away for most day to day people. Majority of people once graduated fail big time in basic math and forget most stuff. And while many programmers are interested in space, space development itself requires large real life teams to make real things happen, other than just some people working together with a computer. But I would have thought that by now way large online portals, full of supporters all cheering for spacex and other companies would exist. But I fear it's like the space shuttle, first launches = big news, but after a few, news coverage faded quickly.

I hope its more a question of time for people to take advantage of the "newly" available technologies the world wide web has only just had its 25th birthday I have drunk ports and single malts older than this enabling technology that has and can bring people together and not everybody has easy access to it yet. Looking at the numbers of people who still tune in for live launches on the web and even tweet #spacelive tags to a TV program not easily available in a lot of countries I am not disheartened yet.

_________________Someone has to tilt at windmills.So that we know what to do when the real giants come!!!!

Its weird isnt it, I wonder if it is the subject area we cover. I belong to marine aquarium forums where we talk for hours about completely nothing and all help each other every second, here it seems everyone wants to put others down or tell them they know better. There isnt much area for general helping

Don't know if it's the subject (but I guess Sigurd is right that it is too far removed from most people to get a big community), but there is a certain mix of elitism on one hand and and lunatics on the other.

Certain characters have been so far removed from reality, that a meaningful discussion was not possible. However, since not much else was going on in the forums, they captured a lot of the attention. I'm sure that drove a few people away.

The "snarkyness" of some others sure didn't help either to create a community.

And of course Armadillo Aerospace's demise played a significant role as well.

I'm still checking the fellowship for news regulary, but I hardly ever check the forums any more and when I sometimes do, new threads are the exception these days, not the norm.